ON PRO HOCKEY

ON PRO HOCKEY; Future Is Uphill for Canada's Sport

By Joe Lapointe

Published: November 17, 1993

TORONTO—
Twenty years ago, this city still had the insular personality of a British fort in the New World. How it has grown! Muddy York, as some locals once called it, has become a gleaming multicultural mecca -- with a thriving theater district and a lack of grime and crime -- that attracts tourists and immigrants.

Once, the only sport that really mattered here was hockey, but that, too, has changed. The Toronto Blue Jays, the two-time World Series champions, play under a retractable dome on the lake front. A new National Basketball Association team will inhabit a state-of-the-art facility in the middle of the thriving downtown district. And the Olympics are still a dream.

Still, Toronto remains, at heart, a hockey town, and the heart of town yesterday was the new Hall of Fame, an exquisite building more than a century old, modernized now, and filled with artifacts in glass cases and with living legends walking the polished floors.

The gathering yesterday honored the Class of 1993, including Billy Smith of the Islanders, Guy Lapointe and Steve Shutt of the Montreal Canadiens and Edgar Laprade of the New York Rangers. The inductees milled about the building's "Great Hall," beneath the stained-glass skylight of a cathedral ceiling, alongside a walk-in vault that houses Lord Stanley's original silver cup.

They told tales of how, why and when. Smith, combative as a goalie during the Islanders' Stanley Cup dynasty from 1980 to 1983, discussed how slashes and spears from his big stick were just part of the game.

"If you're going to hurt me," he said, "I have the same right to do it to you."

It was a succinct summary of the hockey rule book, the part written between the lines in invisible ink. Smith said he probably wouldn't have been as successful under today's technology.

"Some of the stuff I did back then, you wouldn't get away with now with all the cameras," he said. "With those stunts, you'd be out of the league." His was a style learned in Ontario places like Perth and Smith Falls and Cornwall.

"You play in the backyard," Smith said. "Fistfights occur. I always enjoyed it. Brother against brother."

Until last summer, Smith was a goalie coach for the Islanders, but left to follow Bill Torrey to the Florida Panthers. He asked for the job when he sensed he was no longer as welcome at Nassau Coliseum. Oh, brother.

"Sometimes you think you are more valuable than you really are," he said. "When someone noted that his old team is ranked 26th in a 26-team league, Smith said he felt sorry for Al Arbour, his old coach, but mentioned no other names.

Also on hand for the festivities was Gary Bettman, the rookie commissioner and the focus of attention due to a strike by referees and linesmen. Bettman talked informally last night with Don Meehan, the agent for the union, during a post-induction reception. No further negotiations were scheduled, but both men told reporters earlier that they were willing to compromise on the $1.5 million difference in their respective proposals.

Three games were played Monday night with replacement officials from minor and amateur leagues; four were scheduled for tonight and seven more for Wednesday.

The conduct and resolution of this dispute will set a tone for the Bettman administration and will send a signal to the Players Association, which is working without a collective bargaining agreement. A bigger labor confrontation is possible as the playoffs approach in April.

Although the officials' strike isn't big news in the United States, it is a major topic in Canada; all over the newspapers and television stations and the radio talk shows. Public and press sympathy seems to be on the side of the officials, most of whom learned their craft on the dimly lit rinks of small towns in Canada.

Bettman and his lieutenants, new on the job, are perceived my some here as cynical sharpies from high-rise buildings in Manhattan. They may know a lot about television ratings and marketing, the theory goes, but what do they know about "our" game? Have they ever even heard of Foster Hewitt, the pioneer radio broadcaster whose voice echoes through displays in the hall? Do they know the best way to get from London to Windsor during a snowstorm? (On Via Rail, of course).

With the Edmonton Oilers threatening to leave Canada and similar hints coming from Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques, there is a mood of anxiety here, a fear that Canada is losing control of "Canada's game" as the National Hockey League tries for a higher profile.

Just as Canada's major city becomes more "world class," something near and dear is being lost in the bargain. There are two hockey franchises in Florida, as many as in the provinces of Quebec and Alberta. There are three in California. These mixed blessings of free trade were on many minds as the tribe gathered yesterday with one sentimental eye on the past and one nervous one on the future.